GOVERNMENT, in a move its foreign affairs ministry refused to explain, has decided to keep to itself the information about which country nationals it requires to produce visas to visit here.

The protocol department, where the Observer was referred by the ministry’s communications section, said Wednesday it had a listing but was not allowed to issue the information, nor was it allowed to even say which countries Jamaicans must have visas to visit, insisting that by the time it relays the information the countries in question could change their minds about travel requirements.

Pressed for a better explanation, the protocol officer said she would check with the Director of Protocol, and requested that the queries be sent in writing.

On Friday, a short email in response to the queries submitted to the foreign affairs ministry, authored by a P Allen for the Director of Protocol, was no more revealing than Wednesday’s verbal responses.

“We are not in a position to issue to the public a list of countries that Jamaicans require a visa to visit,” said P Allen. “This information is best given by the immigration departments or foreign ministries of the respective countries. Our information may be dated.”

As for the initial query about nationals visiting here, P Allen referred the Observer to Jemreen Crooks of the immigration department at the national security ministry. Crooks in turn referred the query to her boss Leighton Wilson, chief immigration officer.

Wilson, according to his office, was out of office for the day, and his deputy, whose name was given as a Mr Williams, was “in a meeting”.

The foreign ministry’s secretive action comes amid the early stages of a diplomatic chess game between Jamaica and Cayman Islands, after George Town announced plans to impose a visa regime for Jamaicans wanting to visit, saying that too many Jamaican nationals were figuring in crime there.

Cayman Islands is a prosperous dependency of the United Kingdom, with literacy rates of 98 per cent for males and females in a population of under 45,000, and a strong offshore financial base.

Once administered by Jamaica, those ties were severed after Jamaica gained independence from the UK in 1962.

But strong trade ties remain between the two countries, and companies, such as conglomerate GraceKennedy, do significant business with Cayman.

Many Jamaicans work there, but there are also 33 Jamaicans in its prisons.

Patterson on a visit to that country, at the invitation of its business community, warned that Jamaica was prepared to retaliate if Cayman went ahead with the plan. But he gave no indication of the measures Jamaica was prepared to take.

The Observer decided to check on the travel requirements of other countries visiting here after a letter to the newspaper from a Barbadian writer criticised Jamaica’s position as hypocritical, saying Jamaica has taken similar action in relation to Colombia and Haiti.

“There can be no doubt that far too many Jamaicans are very violent, hence the fear of Jamaicans in countries wherever they try to relocate – and you should understand that,” wrote Carson Cadogan.

“Jamaicans are also rather hypocritical. While crying out against the newly instituted visa system in the Caymans, Jamaica has established a visa system for Haiti and Colombia.”

Colombia is a known drug producing country, whose dealers use Jamaica as a transshipment point. Haiti, a sister Caricom country whose status remains in abeyance following the ouster of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is noted by Jamaican police as a source of guns for gangs and drug dealers.

Cayman has since carried through on its travel restriction plan, and is even refusing re-entry to Jamaicans who have worked there for some time. Jamaica’s foreign affairs minister KD Knight is making enquiries into those cases.